


Of Dante and Death Gods

by Niksya_Gaiami



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Post-Kira Investigation (Death Note)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29953116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niksya_Gaiami/pseuds/Niksya_Gaiami
Summary: What if Midora/Meadra gave the notebook that she bought to a human who could *make use* of it. Who would do more than “let out a squeal”?More may come if there’s interest.





	Of Dante and Death Gods

I was walking aimlessly around the park next to my school when it happened. No-one else was around, technically there was still a whole period left for most people and usually, those who take the early leave option have cars to get home. I live three blocks down from the park where I’ve been wondering the path for the last ten minutes. I could go home easily, I just don't want to.

I felt it in the air at the house as I left for class this morning. Joe and Dad were probably in the middle of their screaming match and feeling obligated to mediate for them wasn't the birthday present I was wanting. Not that either of them is likely to remember it’s my birthday today. Not when they didn't last year either. Maybe they’re just used to my constant reminders, and they weren’t expecting my experiment last year. I don’t think I believe that though. 

I’m passing by the pond for the third time when I see it. A black notebook sitting on the banks. I look around to see the park as abandoned as it had been before, but the book hadn’t been there on my last lap. I go grab it. ‘Death Note’ is written on the cover. I flip it open and see instructions on the inside cover. A killer notebook, huh? I put it in my bag and turned around to head home. I’m bored and I’ve always had a macabre sense of humor. It’s probably a joke but maybe writing in it will be therapeutic. My counselor said I should keep a journal, but this does feel more...like me. 

Given the atmosphere when I get home, my guess is that I just missed the fight between Joe and Dad. Marcy and Kelly are both missing from the front room where Dad is silently steaming and Joe is absent entirely. I count myself lucky I missed the excitement as I quietly headed to my bedroom. 

I sit down on my bed and pull out the notebook. A name and a face and I can kill anyone. The idea sounds familiar. I put the book down and pull out my phone. Wasn’t there a serial killer in Japan a few years ago who could do something like that? I look it up online and see old websites dedicated to ‘Kira the Savior’ and ‘Kira the Killer’ though given Google had to translate most of them I can’t be 100% sure of what I read. Some thought him a god, others a demon from hell. A few were still active, forums mostly of devotees awaiting Kira’s return like he was Jesus. Though, at least they have proof Kira existed and could  _ do _ things so I honestly find it less ridiculous than other religions.

I do more looking into this Kira. Documentaries on his case, psych profiles, a few devotee, and opposing YouTube channels. It’s one of the most interesting topics I’ve stumbled on. It distracted me from the book itself for a few hours but by the time the sun is setting, late for mid-October, I’m back to contemplating the notebook. This was probably what Kira used, Not this particular one but this tool, and he probably only worried about names.

If it’s real. I still haven’t confirmed that, have I? But how to confirm this is a real thing? Obviously, write a name, but whose? Then the answer was clear. 

Ronald Underwood would not be seriously missed and as his spawn, I’ll be likely told all the gruesome details if I push. But, before I write the name I have to decide what he’ll die from, I’m too indecisive to choose in only 40 seconds after all. Something that means I’ll be sure it was the book. But not suicide. He has a life insurance plan but it won’t pay out money for suicide. An accident though...and wasn’t Kelly wanting  _ someone _ to chop down that dead tree in the front yard. Yeah, let’s let his last act be kind and thoughtful, the last two things he’s ever been.

_ Ronald Underwood will die from an accident. He goes to cut down the dead tree in his front yard, which falls onto his chest. It breaks his ribs, puncturing his lungs. He drowns in his blood at 4:56 October 17, 2013. _

I’ll know tomorrow if the book is real. I’ll go from there.

Tomorrow, when I returned home around 2 my dad was in the front hard hacking at the tree with the hand ax. Apparently, the chainsaw he bought was a lemon like I thought. No one sells something like that for twenty bucks if it works. I go to chill in my room and set an alarm for four. At four I casually go to sit on the porch. He’s almost done. I end up flicking through internet searches while I wait. Fifteen minutes later I hear the creaking and crash. I looked up at the sound to see the tree had fallen. On my father. Kelly comes out to investigate the sound and screams at the sight.

“Call 911!” She shouts at me. I was startled at the noise but it probably seemed like shock. I called and reported the incident to the woman on the other end. The ambulance took ten minutes to get here, and I made sure to bring up he was a Veteran, and as such the Veteran’s Hospital was his preferred one. Also, him dying there will probably make the paperwork easier.

I’m told he was declared dead at 4:59, drowned in his lungs, and accounting for doctors furiously trying to resuscitate him for a few minutes before the declaration...I concluded that I had a killer notebook on my hands. Oh, but what to  _ do _ with it?

I sit on the question as I return to my reading for my European Lit class. Dante was a creative guy, I’ll give him that. I laugh a little when I reach what he doomed the wrathful to. Fighting and drowning in a river of blood. Funny, I’d done something so similar to my wrathful father. I go back and restart  _ The Inferno _ . Now I have a bit more use for Dante’s ideas.

**“It’s interesting that you chose to test it on your father of all people.”**

I jump at the unknown voice and look around frantically. I see...a strange lizard creature with a large round head.

“Wouldn’t be if you knew him. Who are you and why are you here? And how are you here? And also  _ what _ are you?”

**“That’s a lot of questions, human. My name is Meadra and you have my notebook. Walls don’t stop me because I’m a Shinigami or-“**

“You’re a god of death?” I interrupted it and I don’t think it liked that.

**_“Yesss.”_ ** It hissed in frustration.  **“I thought that term was uncommon amongst humans. Highly regional.”**

“I watch anime, and while you look  _ nothing  _ like the Shinigami in  _ Bleach _ it did still teach me the word,” I explained, “So...what happens now? Do you want it back?”

**“No. I want to watch what you** **_do_ ** **with it.”**

I nodded at that. So I got to keep the Death Note and I now have an audience.

“Did anyone else see you come in? Kelly is a little catatonic right now and Joe is out celebrating, but Marcy might have been out in the living room.”

**“Only you and those that touch the notebook can see or hear me.”**

“Luckily everyone’s already used to me talking to myself then…” It looked at me strangely but I didn't notice as something dawned on me, “So...what pronouns should I use for you? I prefer they/them myself.”

**“She. I’m female.”**

I shrugged at that, “Just didn't want to be rude. I get annoyed when people address me wrong, not that people care. Also, I’m Skylar.”

**“I already knew that, Skylar Taylor Underwood,”** Meadra said,  **“You must be rather attached to that middle name though.”**

“About half the people I know call me Taylor. The other half Skylar.” I said, “Depends on how I feel when I meet them.”

**“Interesting.”**

Meadra likes bananas, a lot. I had to explain how two whole bunches disappeared in a day to Kelly. I took the fall, it’s what Kelly was expecting anyway. I’ve gotten in the habit of grabbing a banana at lunch before taking my meager pickings outside to sit alone where no one will notice a floating, disappearing banana. 

I haven’t used the book again quite yet. I’ve been considering the potential victims. I  _ could  _ always co-opt Kira’s MO, giving criminals heart attacks, and that might be  _ part _ of what I do but it seems rather uninspired to just copy Kira. Like when my classmates’ none too subtly take peaks at my papers in class. I’ve never been a cheater.

Maybe I’ll try it for a bit to see what L says.

I have been taking a closer look at  _ The Divine Comedy  _ though. The original self-insert fanfic where Dante gets to tour the Christian afterlife with his favorite historic poet and his unrequited love. 

The man was creative when it came to torturing the damned. I had had a passing interest in it at the start of the class, but now it seemed  _ so _ much more interesting.

Indeed, I just needed to figure out  _ who _ , as I already had an idea of  _ how. _ The answer came to me as I was researching my predecessor. I had requested the SPK’s case files, now held by the FBI, and with the reasoning of ‘educational purposes’ FOIA had them in our mailbox in two weeks. It was, after all, a closed 3-year old case, and a supposed aspiring police detective was asking. 

What caught my attention was the reference to a mole, a turncoat of sorts. Shuichi Aizawa. 

“Should I learn the Japanese characters to spell his name or would the Romaji work?” I casually as Meadra.

**“Romaji would probably work.”** Meadra said,  **“As long as you can find his face.”**

I nodded and switched the location of the VPN on my phone. It took longer to load, expected as Austin is much closer than Kyoto, but now the site things I’m local, or close. Shuichi Aizawa had been promoted to director of the NPA it looked like. His picture was online. He  _ really _ should have known better given his history. Maybe he was confident that Death Notes were ‘once in a lifetime’ events. More's the pity that it happened  _ twice _ in his life.

_ Shuichi Aizawa freezes to death on November 27, 2013. He is found with a note reading “Abandon all hope ye who enter here” _

He’d die around the end of the month, today was the fourth of November, but that was the day the report said he first met with the SPK. It just felt  _ right _ .

I don't know enough to feel comfortable writing more details. Instead, I switch to look up criminals and start getting L’s attention. Maybe poor Shuichi will have time to see the ‘return’ of Kira before his death. Maybe he’ll see it coming but expect the heart attack. Sadly, I hear freezing is slower and more painful. 

I scrawled a dozen names of criminals, many US locals as we  _ do  _ have a buffet of them, but I make sure to add in some in Japan and Europe. Variety is the spice of life and all. I vary the times a bit and wonder if the note uses my time zone or the victims. I’m not sure it matters much.

I do the same the next day, though most of the names are from the UK.  _ Remember, remember the fifth of November.  _ I had one man, a child molester,  _ ‘mistaken for Guy Fawkes effigy while unconscious and is burned alive’ _ instead of the heart attack, but I resist the urge to do it more than once. 

I write a dozen names again on the sixth and seventh, and every day going forward. It’s the twenty-fifth by the time there is any sort of open recognition for what is happening. L appears in a “Live Broadcast” but it  _ is  _ just a gothic capital L on screen and a distorted voice, the “live” part could be a lie. He denounces my work as boring, a poor copy. I laugh. He saw what I wanted him to, I guess, but I’m disappointed he wrote me off before I truly started. It might make things easier but that likely also means less fun. 

I decide the summary dismissal is as good a cue as any to start my real plan. But I make sure to not schedule anyone else for the twenty-seventh. The twenty-sixth sees six criminals dying of heart attacks and six suffering  _ Inferno- _ inspired ends. On the twenty-seventh, I take a break. Only one man will die by my hands today.

I wish I could know more about how it happens, how he’s found, or if L realizes Aizawa was killed by the “cheap Kira copy” he’d derided.

I want to laugh when the gothic L once again broadcasts globally on November 28th.

_ “It seems you are more interesting than I first imagined. Alright, Dante-Kira, I accept your challenge.” _

He thought Shuichi Aizawa’s fate was a challenge did he? 

None of the twelve that die that day do so from a heart attack. I don’t feel like keeping up the old Kira’s modus operandi anymore. Looks like L reads the classics, I wonder if he’d catch more modern references as well. I guess I have a way to find out. I smiled at Meadra as I pull out the notebook.


End file.
